How many weeks of EI can you get in 2026?
Two variables decide your weeks: hours worked in the last year, and the unemployment rate of your economic region. Here is the whole grid.
Updated on · Mottalib Radif · Editorial policy
Schedule I: weeks of benefits by hours and regional unemployment rate
Rows are insurable hours, columns the regional unemployment rate. A dash means you do not qualify in that band.
| Hours | ≤6% | 6–7% | 7–8% | 8–9% | 9–10% | 10–11% | 11–12% | 12–13% | 13–14% | 14–15% | 15–16% | >16% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 420 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 26 | 28 | 30 | 32 |
| 490 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 23 | 25 | 27 | 29 | 31 | 33 |
| 560 | — | — | — | — | 20 | 22 | 24 | 26 | 28 | 30 | 32 | 34 |
| 630 | — | — | 17 | 19 | 21 | 23 | 25 | 27 | 29 | 31 | 33 | 35 |
| 700 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 24 | 26 | 28 | 30 | 32 | 34 | 36 |
| 840 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 24 | 26 | 28 | 30 | 32 | 34 | 36 | 38 |
| 980 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 24 | 26 | 28 | 30 | 32 | 34 | 36 | 38 | 40 |
| 1120 | 20 | 22 | 24 | 26 | 28 | 30 | 32 | 34 | 36 | 38 | 40 | 42 |
| 1260 | 22 | 24 | 26 | 28 | 30 | 32 | 34 | 36 | 38 | 40 | 42 | 44 |
| 1400 | 24 | 26 | 28 | 30 | 32 | 34 | 36 | 38 | 40 | 42 | 44 | 45 |
| 1540 | 28 | 30 | 32 | 34 | 36 | 38 | 40 | 42 | 44 | 45 | 45 | 45 |
| 1680 | 32 | 34 | 36 | 38 | 40 | 42 | 44 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 |
| 1820 | 36 | 38 | 40 | 42 | 44 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 |
How to read it
Take your hours (rounded down to the nearest 35, the Act works in weeks of 35 hours) and your region’s rate. The cell gives your weeks. Each extra 70 hours adds one week; each extra percentage point of unemployment adds two weeks, until the 45-week ceiling.
The full Schedule I has 41 rows, from 12 weeks of insurable employment (420 hours) to 52 weeks and more (1,820 hours), and 12 columns, from 6% and under to more than 16%. The table above shows every second or third row; the calculator uses the complete grid. Two features are worth noticing. The left-hand cells are empty in the low-hours rows because the entrance requirement is higher in low-unemployment regions: at 6% you need 700 hours, so the 420- to 665-hour rows are blank in that column. And the top right is flat at 45: once hours and unemployment are both high, the ceiling binds and additional hours add nothing.
Three examples
- Toronto (6.8%), 1,820 hours: 38 weeks.
- Montréal (6.6%), 1,000 hours: 20 weeks.
- Northern Manitoba (28.7%), 420 hours: 32 weeks.
The Montréal example shows the arithmetic: 1,000 hours is 28 weeks of 35 hours (28.57 rounded down), and the 6.1% to 7% column at 28 weeks reads 20. Had the same worker accumulated 1,050 hours, the row would be 30 and the entitlement 21 weeks. Had Montréal been at 7.2% instead of 6.6%, the column would shift right and the entitlement would rise by two weeks to 22.
The benefit period is not the weeks of benefits
Your benefit period is 52 weeks from the start of the claim, during which your weeks can be paid. If you work in between, the unused weeks remain available inside that window. Your weeks of benefits are the paid weeks. Severance allocation and the one-week waiting period both consume the benefit period, not your weeks.
| Concept | What it is | Typical length |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifying period | The window in which hours are counted, before the claim | 52 weeks, up to 104 |
| Benefit period | The window in which weeks can be paid, from the start of the claim | 52 weeks, up to 104 |
| Weeks of benefits | The number of weeks actually payable, from Schedule I | 14 to 45 |
| Waiting period | Unpaid week at the start of the claim | 1 week |
| Severance allocation | Weeks covered by separation money, before benefits start | Varies |
A claimant with 30 weeks of benefits who finds a four-month contract after ten weeks keeps 20 weeks in reserve. If the contract ends before the 52-week benefit period expires, the claim is reactivated without a new waiting period and the remaining weeks are paid. If the contract runs past the end of the benefit period, the reserve is lost, but the new hours usually establish a fresh claim with a new entitlement. Where the new claim would pay less, for example because the contract was part-time, it is sometimes better to ask Service Canada to keep the old claim running; a renewal is not mandatory.
Reactivating a claim versus starting a new one
When you become unemployed again inside the benefit period, you have a choice. Reactivating the existing claim keeps the original weekly rate and the original weeks, minus those already paid. Starting a new claim means a new qualifying period, a new rate calculated on the recent best weeks, a new entitlement from Schedule I, and a new waiting period. Service Canada will usually reactivate by default; if the new job paid more or your region’s rate has risen, ask for the new claim to be established instead, and compare using the calculator. The choice cannot be reversed once benefits are paid.
Extensions and pilots
The number of weeks in Schedule I has been supplemented several times. Seasonal workers in thirteen designated regions, mostly in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Yukon, have received up to five additional weeks under successive pilot projects since 2018, subject to having had at least three claims in the previous five years around the same time of year. Temporary measures during economic shocks have added weeks nationally or lowered the rate bands. Claimants in a designated region should check the current pilot on the Service Canada site; the calculator shows the Schedule I weeks only.
What ends a claim early
- Refusing suitable employment, failing to look for work or being unavailable, which can lead to disqualification for the remaining weeks.
- Leaving Canada without an authorised reason: benefits stop for the days abroad.
- Attending full-time training not approved by a designated authority.
- Earning more than 90% of previous earnings in a week, which zeroes the benefit for that week without consuming it.
- The end of the 52-week benefit period, whatever weeks remain.
Enter your hours and region in the calculator to see your weeks, the first payable week and the estimated end date of the claim.
